Syria – proceed with caution

The Arab Spring is nothing more than an Arab nightmare. The latest outrage in Egypt is the break-in of the Israeli Embassy, which was stormed by around 30 activists. A special note here: there were about 300 who split off from the main group of protesters and who went to the Israeli embassy. They pounded at the brick fences that protected the embassy and they were successful in breaching the wall, however, only about 30 individuals entered the embassy. The signs for Egypt in my opinion remain bad. If this is an indication of the feelings of the general population, then Israel will become even more isolated.

The civil war in Libya is not over, but it continues with three towns holding out. According to the news reports the people of Bani Walid want an end to any confrontation, however Gadhafi and his sons left behind a small group of henchmen, who have been up on the roofs acting as snipers. The first action has come from pro-opposition forces within the town. No one has entered into Bani Walid. The situation at Sirte is far more extreme, and I have to add here that prayers are needed for the 300 who have been taken as hostage. The news item said that they were being herded into a village just outside of Sirte where they are being used as human shields. My prayer is that God will protect these Libyan citizens from evil.  At the same time several Loyalist generals have escaped into Niger. You know those missing weapons? I bet that those weapons accompanied those generals on the trip into Niger. On the other hand, it could be that the numbers are being exaggerated, or it could be that those weapons are now in the process of being used outside of Sirte, Bani Walid and Sabha. The best result possible will be the capture of Daffy Duck.

However, it is time to turn attention once more to the situation in Syria. For myself I cannot back Assad because of the crackdown against the people who have been for the most part unarmed individuals. Whilst it was possible to see differences between the protests in Egypt and the ones in Libya that led to the civil war, I consider the Syrian situation to be far from straight forward. I think what is turning me off the Syrian situation is the picutre of the women in their niquabs protesting. Now, it could be that I am ignorant with regard to the women’s situation in Syria – are they required by law to wear either the burqa or niquab, or is this a purely voluntary thing? When I see women in those things I shudder, because it implies that these are indeed extremists. (for the most part the women in Syria wore at most the abeya with a few opting for a burqa and yes Libya has Sharia law).

It seems to me that the situation in Syria is quite different from that in Libya, even though in both cases the regime dictator is acting in a very brutal manner, and both have offered the same excuses. Rather than concentrating on the protesters (I do not know enough about them), I want to concentrate upon the excuses given by Assad, and to point to the inconsistencies that are all too obvious.

A few months ago I became aware that there were members of the military in Syria who had defected rather than participate in the brutality being perpetrated by the regime. In one town, where Assad claimed that the people had been the killers, there was ample evidence to show that the military who had died were shot from behind as though they had been executed. The scene as described pointed to military being shot because they would not follow orders. However, Assad had been claiming that the “Al Qaeda” or “terrorists” had killed those people.

For years Gadhafi had been pulling the Al Qaeda stunt against those people opposed to him and Assad is using the same excuse to try and get away with his brutality.  The pair of them have been crying wolf for several years, using the West’s “crusade” against Al Qaeda as their excuse to stamp on the dissidents.  This is so, even though the dissidents in Syria are by no means innocent of wrong doing, and their allegiances are ill-defined. The Syrians have not come out as stongly pro-West like the dissident Libyan.

Another factor in Syria is the role of Iran, and especially the Iranian relationship with Assad. Iran has been using Syria as a satellite in its own fight against Israel. Iran has been financing Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iran has been using Syria as a satellite state, hence Iran has been able to conduct hostilities against the USA, as well as against Israel via Syria. Iran has also been active in Lebanon via Syria. On top of that there is evidence that Iranian revolutionary guards have been active in the brutal crackdowns upon the Syrian people.

It should be pointed out that Iran was supplying weapons to Gadhafi but they also supplied food and medicine to the NTC in Benghazi. There really is a common thread.

The Syrian has a potential to become very explosive, especially when a lot of the action has occurred on the border with Turkey. At one point it really looked like there could be an international incident. The Turks are simply trying to protect the people who have not done anything wrong.

It is difficult to respond to the Syrian problem because of the unknown factors, yet, one must be consistent and condemn the actions of Assad in the brutal manner he has been cracking down on the minority dissidents.

For the record, the Assad regime has connections with the Ba’ath party. He has had ties to Saddam Hussein. It is more than likely that those WMDs that actually existed in Iraq were moved across the border and into Syria (no questions asked).


13 responses to “Syria – proceed with caution

  1. People who go around claiming there were not any WMDs in Iraq are FLAMING MORONS. The question is – What happened to them. The two most obvious candidates are “buried in the sand” and “moved to Syria”. The right answer is “some of both”. That was then. Where are they now? Who knows?

    If anyone is a fan of Abraham Lincoln, I have seen nothing that Assad has done that was not done by AL. So I guess that puts a lot of people on the side of Assad. For people like me – who think that AL was the most despicable president ever, and the greatest scourge of the republic prior to ZerObama, then I agree that Assad needs to be throttled.


  2. Carlyle you pose a very good question. I certainly believe that Saddam Hussein had long enough to transport those WMDs into Syria. The border was open and Assad was a “friend”.


  3. Air Force Brat

    Doesn’t anyone remember the news stories about not just trucks, but CONVOYS of trucks, seen (and filmed) heading from Iraq toward Syria? The stories were all over the place. And remember also — in the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict, Saddam Hussein moved most of his air fleet into either just Iran, or Iran and Syria. (The news accounts varied as to which of these two destinations the air fleet wound up at).


  4. Yes, I remember those stories, and that is what convinces me that those WMDs are hidden in Syria


  5. Air Force Brat

    And with how much yellowcake Syria most likely has now . . . . and what they’ve no doubt done with it, I shudder to think of what Assad may do in his bid to retain power and inflict maximum damage on those he sees as his enemies.

    Bush will be vindicated one day. I just hope that I’m not alive to see the circumstances under which that vindication will come.


  6. These are very good points, and I agree. I shudder at the thought of Assad and those who support him. He is and remains a puppet of Iran. He is extremely dangerous.

    I agree that Bush will be vindicated in the end, and I really hope that it is not due to the use of any of that yellow cake material.

    For all we know that material has already been given to Iran.


  7. If Syria had any yellowcake, there would have been very little reason for them to keep it, and a number of very big reasons for them to sell it to Iran. So that is about 99% certain where it is.

    Yellowcake all by itself is not particulary dangerous or frightening. It takes a LOT of processing to make it into nuke fuel. Even then it is not “dirty” enough to make a very devastating dirty bomb. But, uh oh, after it has cooked in a reactor for a while, that is where all the really nasty stuff is generated.

    So, which evil state actors have nuclear reactors up and running? Not Syria. NorKo and Pahkeestahn for two. Iran will soon have large such capability and maybe some small scale already.

    And, remember Syria is basically Iran West.


  8. Carlyle, again, that is a timely reminder, that Pakistan has nuclear capability. It is a very scary fact.


  9. Well, here we are at the tenth anniversary of that fateful day of infamy, and the truthers are at it big time. Carlyle, I know that you have written before that there are still unanswered questions, and I don’t disagree, but the conspiracy theorists seem to have an unnatural affinity for their beliefs.

    I have just reread an article summarizing Popular Mechanics thorough investigations done a number of years ago. The misconceptions are debunked completely by a large team of investigators, including engineers and other knowledgeable people.

    Recently Flight 93 has been brought up, and the theory there is that it was brought down by a missile – thoroughly debunked by Popular Mechanics.
    Moreover, the phone calls made from the plane itself – e.g. Todd Beemer to his wife and mother, explaining what was happening on board. Others did likewise. There was a struggle going on and it can be heard over the phone. Now the craziest of all to me is that all of the passengers of the other planes were unloaded first and put on Flight 93 so that they would all be killed – by a missile, of course. Ludicrous!

    What is it that possesses some folks to want to look for reasons other than the logical ones? I feel it is a dead ender and a worthless debate. Furthermore, I believe it shows disrespect and callousness to those who will always grieve over their losses. I just had to say it. Grrrh…..


  10. Cabby, I wish that I knew the answer. I looked at the Popular Mechanics article a couple of years ago. In particular I was interested in the flight that hit the Pentagon, because there were similar stupid claims about that flight.

    My husband is an aeronautical and logistics engineer, and you could say that I have spent some time around military aircraft!! I know an engine when I see one, and there were engine parts on the ground outside of the Pentagon, no matter what the Troofers have to say on the subject.

    I agree with you that the attitude of the Troofers shows a lot of disrespect for all of the families who had loved ones who died that day. Australia lost several people, as did the UK and a variety of other countries.

    Alain Juppe, the French Foreign Minister has said it best: It could have happened in Paris or in Sydney or even in Melbourne. The fact is that this form of terrorism can virtually strike without warning…

    ……except that, according to a news report I was reading earlier today, the CIA could have done more to prevent what took place. NOTE: I said CIA and not the White House or the President. I was reading about a “spy” who happened to be Lebanese born. He was given some tips when he was working in Saudi Arabia as an interpreter. The CIA man in charge hit the roof because an interpreter is not supposed to find out those things!! This man got information relating to the role of the Afghanistan airlines in ferrying terrorists between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. He was given a very hot tip about financing for the terrorist attack. The CIA chief did not like it at all. Instead of following up diligently the information was given low priority. So there you have it…. pettiness within the CIA cost all of those lives!!


  11. Aussie, that is an interesting piece about the “spy” who got wind of valuable info and was rebuffed. I agree totally that the CIA and FBI and others bungled the intelligence on this terrible event. The dots were all over the place, and somehow the lack of communication between the involved agencies caused them NOT to connect the dots.

    Lately I’ve been pondering what it is – what factors – cause some people to gravitate so quickly and remain fixed on conspiracy theories, which are a zillion. We all know that governments do lie to the people at times, but to perpetrate stuff of this magnitude defies all reasonableness.

    Besides, even when certain elements are thoroughly shown to be the result of misreporting or misunderstanding, the theorists switch gears and still cling to their pet ideas. Furthermore, they never give up! This will be debated ad infinitum. It disgusts me, big time.

    Hope you are beginning to feel some better after your nasty fall!


  12. While this subject is on my brain, I found an interesting article:
    “Ten Characteristics of Conspiracy Theorists”
    It is very good and certainly gives true descriptions.


  13. Please read this article:

    You will then understand that the CIA is the most responsible for the failure to circumvent those events.

    The man was a Christian Lebanese and he was treated like dirt.